Retention Times For Records, Reports, and Specimens

The minimum required retention times for various records, reports, and specimens are listed below. These reflect retention periods
required by CLIA federal and state regulations, as well as accreditation standards (CAP and Joint Commission).

Item/ Records Retention Times

Autopsy 3 months after final Wet Tissue

10 years Paraffin blocks/ Slides / Reports

Clinical Lab Specimens 48 hours Serum/ plasma / CSF/ Body Fluids

24 hours Urine
7 days Peripheral Blood smears / body fluid smears
7 days Permanently stained slides Microbiology (gram, trichrome,etc)

Discontinued procedures 5 years Policies/procedures are quarantined in a separate file, after the
date of discontinuation

Instrument/Equipment records 5 years Maintenance records daily, weekly, or monthly checks

Life of the equipment Major repairs, parts replacement, annual maintenance

Proficiency Testing 5 years

Specimen/Patient Records 2 years Accession logs

2 years Specimen Records retained on site
2 years Patient test results and reports
2 years Instrument Printouts, unless the recorded data are retrievable in
an alternate manner

Surgical Path/Histology 2 wks. after final report Gross specimen/ Wet tissue
10 years Slides and Blocks

Test Reports 10 years Histology, Cytology & Cone marrow

(Prelim. & Final) 25 year Cytogenetic
7 years All others

Test Requisitions 7 years

Quality Control Records 5 years

Laboratory Specific Times:

Blood Bank Records
Indefinite retention Donor/recipient records; permanently deferred donor;
Under surveillance for recipient's protection (hepatitis B+)
7 days post transfusion Specimens from blood donor units & recipients -
10 years Donor and Recipient and patient records
10 years Records of employee signatures, initials and ID codes

Cytology 5 years From examination date of Slides

10 years Fine needle aspirates

Cytogenetics 3 years Permanently stained slide

At discretion of lab director- Fluorchrome stained slides
2 wks after final report Fixed cell pellet
20 years Final report
20 years Diagnostic images
10 years of more FISH Studies of Neoplastic conditions

Embryo Laboratory As specified by law or 10 years beyond date of final

Flow Cytometry 10 years Gated dot plots and histograms

Tissue Banking Indefinite retention

rev 9/2010